How do I compress a bar? (just a little bit)
Newbie here. This is my first score, ever (not just in MS; I mean my first music score ever, period.)
So far, the bars were fitting 4 to a page, which was ideal to me.
Then I added an arpegio symbol to the organ chord, and the first bar stretched to occupy the full width of the page.
So now my first page has 3 bars; the rest have 4.
This is not ideal to me; the music sections all happen on multiples of 4 bars.
If you look at my file (attached), I'm sure you will agree that the first bar looks over-stretched. Is there a compress function?
I tried Decrease Layout Stretch multiple times, to no avail.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Time_Won't_Wait.mscz | 17.34 KB |
Comments
You need to select the bar you want to compress first. Then the decrease stretch works the first time :-)
In reply to You need to select the bar… by Marc Sabatella
That's EXACTLY what I did, many times; it did not work for me.
Let me try it again...
Doesn't work.
The first bar is selected, all four "parts" all framed in blue.
I tried Compress from the Layout menu.
I tried with shift-(
I tried with shift-)
I tried '(' and ')' keys without shift.
NOTHING happens.
In reply to That's EXACTLY what I did,… by danw58
What version of MuseScore? Works perfectly for me in 2.3.2. In the file you uploaded. Click empty spot in the bar - no need to actually select all four staves - which puts the blue rectangle around the first bar. Then press "{" exactly once. BTW, note it is "{" and not "(" - the curly brace. But evevn if you had the wrong shortcut, Layout / Decrease Stretch should have worked.
As a check, right-click the bar, Measure Properties, and see what Layout Stretch is set to. Default is 1.0. Looks like in this score you had previously increased the stretch in the first two bars, as they are set at 1.2. A few other bars randomly seem to have customized stretch values. My guess is you had accidentally added too much stretch and then started trying to decrease it, and stopped one short of what was needed.
Best bet is to Ctrl+A to select all, the Layout / Reset Layout Stretch. This puts everything back where it should be - and you'll see that measures 1 & 2 fit perfectly already, no need to decrease stretch at all.
In reply to What version of MuseScore? … by Marc Sabatella
2.3.2
Aha!, I did have that ( wrong. I need better glasses.
Let me try again with { then...
Nope. Still doesn't work.
Right click - Measure Properties, Layout Stretch is set to 1.7 !!!
But I entered 1.0, clicked OK, and nothing happens.
I'll try the ctrl-A -> reset trick, give me a second...
BINGO!
Thanks!
In reply to 2.3.2… by danw58
Glad you got it working!
Reason setting to 1.0 didn't work, BTW is that the next measure was also set higher. Probably in your experimentation you had accidentally pressed "}" or tried "increase layout stretch" a bunch of times. Or if someone else originally entered this music, maybe they did. One reason why I'm a bit wary of using other people's work as a starting point. Sometimes if the need arises, I'll open their score, then creating a new one of my own, then copy and paste their work into mine. The copy and paste generally ignores all these sorts of formatting customizations, giving me "just the facts". Same applies if importing from MusicXML or any other format, even if it was my own work originally.
In reply to Reason setting to 1.0 didn't… by Marc Sabatella
No, I had started the score from scratch.
Been copying scores from another file, but that's more recent; my problem with the first bar happened before that.
It's quite possible I tried stretch/compress multiple times; and what's more, who knows what selection I had when I did...
But I got the whole song formatted in a way that makes sense to me, now.
Thanks for all the help.
In reply to No, I had started the score… by danw58
Could someone tell me who's the author of the Time Won't Wait music score linked in the first reply to this thread? Reason being, I have worked from it, modified the bass line, added the singing melody as trumpet, and shared it...
https://musescore.com/user/29490321/scores/5206618
But the percussion and guitar, and 90% of the bass line are original, so I would like to give due attribution.
In reply to Could someone tell me who's… by danw58
that's you isnt it?